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JOINT REPORT 



OF THE 



Commissions on Memorials 



TO 



SENATORS 



Orville Hitchcock Platt 



AND 



Joseph Roswell Hawley 



TO 



The General Assembly of the State of Connecticut 

r. 1915 



^■^''\^:V 



THE CASE. LOCKWOOO & BRAINARD CO. 
HARTFORD. CONN. 



; ^' - ^^ 7 ^ 1 c 






Publication 

Approved by 

The Board of Control 

lo" 0f 1> 



JOINT REPORT OF COMMISSIONS ON MEMORIALS 
TO SENATORS ORVILLE HITCHCOCK PLATT AND 
JOSEPH ROSWELL HAWLEY 

Joseph Roswell Hawley died March i8, 1905, just two weeks 
after completing his fourth term as United States senator from 
Connecticut. Orville Hitchcock Piatt, his colleague, soon follow- 
ing him, died April 21, 1905, while in the third year of his fifth 
term in the Senate. Each served longer than any of their prede- 
cessors in the history of the state. The General Assembly of 
Connecticut, in session at the time of their death, appointed by 
Resolutions Nos. 470 and 471 two commissions to procure and 
recommend to the next General Assembly " designs, plans, speci- 
fications and estimates of the cost of a monument or other me- 
morial " to each of these honored sons of the state. The com- 
missions consisted of seven members each, named in the resolu- 
tions, besides the state Sculpture Commission, which was made a 
part of each of the commissions. The sum of twenty-five hundred 
dollars was appropriated to each commission for prelirninary 
work, of which the two bodies spent five hundred dollars, in 
paying the late Augustus Saint Gaudens that amount for his 
expert advice. The Piatt Commission chose as chairman Hon. 
H. Wales Lines of Meriden, and as secretary Arthur L. Shipman 
of Hartford. The Hawley Commission chose as chairman Colo- 
nel Frank W. Cheney of Manchester, and as secretary Charles 
Hopkins Clark of Hartford. After the death of Colonel Cheney, 
May 26, 1909, Hon. Charles F. Brooker of Ansonia was chosen 
his successor as a member of the Hawley Commission and as its 
chairman. 

On the 23d of January, 1907, the two commissions made a 
joint report to the General Assembly to the effect that it was not 



possible to secure proper memorials by competition, and they asked 
that appropriations be made which they might use " in their 
judgment for the purposes for which the commissions were cre- 
ated, namely, the creating and placing such memorials within or 
in connection with the Capitol building or grounds." The Gen- 
eral Assembly accepted the report and passed resolutions appro- 
priating $25,000 to each commission, subsequently providing that 
whatever part of these sums remained unexpended should be 
turned over to the Sculpture Commission " for the further deco- 
ration and completion of the Capitol building." The two com- 
missions decided upon bronze bas reliefs to be set respectively 
upon the east and west walls of the north portico of the Capitol. 
The Piatt Commission chose Herman A. MacNeil of New York, 
and the Hawley Commission chose Herbert Adams of New York. 
The work of the artists was carried out to the satisfaction of the 
commissions and of the families of the senators, and the cuts that 
accompany this report are photographic reproductions of the tab- 
lets, which are of heroic size. 

The dedication took place on Friday, October 18, 191 2, at the 
Capitol. To this the public generally was invited, and special 
invitations were sent to the President and Vice-President of the 
United States, the state officers and all ex-governors, the judges of 
the Supreme and Superior Courts, former colleagues of the sen- 
ators at Washington, members of the General Assemblies of 1879 
and 1881, which respectively first elected Messrs. Piatt and Hawley 
to the Senate, all survivors of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, 
of which Hawley had been colonel, and members of the families 
of the two senators and their personal friends. Mayor Louis R. 
Cheney was marshal of the exercises. The Seventh Regiment 
veterans were escorted to the Capitol, and subsequently for a 
brief parade, by the First Company of Governor's Foot Guards 
under Major Frank L. Wilcox, and the Putnam Phalanx (of 
which General Hawley had been a member) under Major E. C. 
Bigelow. 



Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, D. D., of Hartford, General 
Hawley's former pastor, opened the dedicatory exercises with 
prayer. Mr. Lines presented the Piatt Memorial and Mr. Brooker 
the Hawley Memorial to Governor Baldwin, as representative of 
the state, and the governor accepted them. The memorials were 
then unveiled, Miss Margery Piatt drawing aside the flags from 
her grandfather's memorial, and Miss Marion Hawley those from 
her father's. 

The audience, which, up to this time, had gathered about the 
north front out of doors, then withdrew within the Capitol, where 
Hon. John C. Spooner, formerly senator from Wisconsin and now 
a resident of New York, delivered the oration upon Senator Piatt, 
and Rev. Dr. Edwin P. Parker, D. D., of Hartford, delivered 
the oration upon General Hawley. The benediction was then 
pronounced by Rev. Alfred J. Lord of Meriden, who had been 
Senator Piatt's pastor. 

The texts of the several addresses are appended herewith. 

PRESENTATION RY MR. LINES 

Mr. Lines, chairman of the Piatt commission, presenting the 
Piatt Memorial, said : — 

Your Excellency — When Orville Hitchcock Piatt passed 
from us April 21, 1905, the General Assembly of Connecticut, 
then in session, appointed a commission having twelve members, 
which was instructed " to procure and recommend to the next 
General Assembly designs, plans and specifications of a monu- 
ment or other memorial to be erected upon the Capitol grounds." 
The commission after a careful study of the problem, found 
themselves unable to submit designs and plans upon conditions 
which in their judgment would secure the best results, and, there- 
fore made a report to the General Assembly in its 1907 session, 
recommending an appropriation sufficient to secure work of the 
highest artistic merit and worthy of the man it was to honor. 
When that report reached the General Assembly, the rules were 
suspended and without delay by unanimous vote, each body 



adopted the recommendations of the commission and instructed 
it to design and produce such a memorial. 

The memorial has been designed and completed by the emi- 
nent sculptor, Herman A. MacNeil of College Point, Long Island, 
and from him we have in bronze a faithful partrait of our de- 
parted friend. But this artist's masterpiece erected by the people 
of Connecticut is but the visible token that these people feel and 
know that there are other memorials of the work and worth of 
Senator Piatt ; memorials which will not fade nor crumble ; 
memorials which he himself has builded. 

The confidence of Connecticut people in him had no limit. 
For twenty-six years he held their commission to a place in the 
world's greatest council chamber. The common-sense, industry, 
courage, patriotism and trust in God which controlled his every 
act made him a great leader in that body. How many great 
measures he carried through and how many he materially aided 
is not known or understood by many people and hence is not yet 
fully appreciated. A complete account of it has not as yet been 
told nor written. In his every action he tried to be right; his as- 
sociates knew and felt that he tried always to be right and this 
gave to him his power. His one ambition was to be right and 
to be useful. For his pure life, for his record of right things 
done, for the good name he leaves, let us thank the Lord in 
whom he believed and in whom he put his trust. 

Governor Baldwin, the work of this commission has been a 
precious privilege, but this occasion is saddened be ause four of 
our beloved and helpful associates have all untim y been taken 
from us : Dr. William J. Ford, Kirk H. Leavens, John H. 
Whittemore and Abiram Chamberlain. We hope our work is 
satisfactory to the people of Connecticut and we ask the accept- 
ance of it for them by you. 

PRESENTATION BY MR. BROOKER 

Mr. Brooker, chairman of the Hawley commission, presenting 
the Hawley Memorial, said : — 

Governor Baldwin : — 

To me in common with my associates on the Hawley Memorial 
Commission, the fact that our beloved associate and former 
chairman, Colonel Frank Woodbridge Cheney, did not live to see 



the completion of the work he was so greatly interested in is a 
matter of sincere regret. By reason of his fine judgment, his 
marked service in the Civil War, his association with and strong 
personal affection for General Hawley, he was pre-eminently 
fitted for the work of the commission, and we are largely indebted 
to his wise counsel for the result as shown in the completed 
work. 

On behalf of the Hawley Memorial Commission, it is my duty 
and great pleasure now to turn over to you, sir — the honored 
chief executive of our beloved commonwealth — this memorial, 
prepared with loving care, of that gallant patriot, General Joseph 
Roswell Hawley, whose distinguished service in the field, as gov- 
ernor, as representative in Congress, and, with the exception of 
his distinguished colleague. Senator Piatt, whom also we honor 
today, as a senator of the United States for a longer period than 
any of his predecessors. He brought name and fame to the state 
he loved so well, and to which he freely gave the best there was 
in him. 

In connection with the final act for which this commission was 
raised, may I express for myself and my associates the sincere 
hope that the devoted life of General Hawley may prove an in- 
spiration to higher ideals of duty to all who may look upon this 
beautiful tribute from the state he served so faithfully and well. 

ACCEPTANCE BY THE GOVERNOR 

Governor Baldwin, on behalf of the state, accepted both me- 
morials, speaking as follows : — 

Gentlemen of the Piatt Memorial Commission ; gentlemen of 
the Hawley Memorial Commission ; veteran soldiers and fellow 
citizens : — 

On this beautiful October day, in the smile of the sunshine, 
the state receives from your hands the completed work which it 
entrusted to your care. It testifies to your good judgment and 
good taste. The skill of the artist has brought before us forms 
that no longer belong to earth — the alert military figure of 
Hawley, the grave and thoughtful countenance of Piatt. These 
men sat long together as members of a legislative assembly that 
never dies. Every other year we renew our congresses, but the 



8 

Senate is never wholly changed. It is the same identical body 
now that met first in New York to inaugurate the federal govern- 
ment, in April, 1789. The best guarded and most important pos- 
session of the smaller states of the Union is th ir right of equal 
representation in the Senate of the United States. It is the best 
guarded, for it is expressly put beyond reach of abridgment by 
reason of any future amendment of the Constitution, except by 
consent of the state to be affected, and such consent it would never 
give. It is the most important possession, for under a bicameral 
system of government, the equal vote of each state in one branch 
of Congress carries an assurance that that branch will not be 
likely to concur in any measure passed by the other branch 
which the lesser states may deem inimical to their true interests. 
Because the Senate is thus the fortress of their rights, were 
there no other room, these states should ever take a double care 
to send there men of character and power. In choosing them 
also, they will not fail to remember that no great officers of gov- 
ernment, under our American political system, excepting the 
judges, have a term of ofifice so long, or one more likely to be re- 
newed when it expires. The usefulness of a senator grows ma- 
terially with his length of service, and this is strikingly evident in 
his influence in committee-work under the traditions of the Sen- 
ate, slowly formed and slowly surrendered. Connecticut had 
these considerations in mind when she elected and re-elected 
the two senators in whose honor these memorials have been 
set up. Each served to complement the other : Hawley with 
his mastery of oratory, and Piatt with his profound political 
sagacity ; Hawley with his wide and varied experience and 
acquaintance, and Piatt with his quiet and steady purpose to put 
his best into his daily work. 

In behalf of the state, I now receive these memorials into 
her keeping. High above us stand statues of some of the great 
figures in our early history. These bronzes will serve to remind 
those entering this stately portal that Connecticut is also not 
ungrateful to her sons of later days who served her well. Per- 
haps we may be too apt to look backward for our heroic age. 
That public man in every generation, in the commonplaces of our 
own day, is a hero who, put by the state in a great station, with 
capacity to fill it as it should be filled, does his full duty by his 
charge. 



•B 



Oi- 




ORVILLE HITCHCOCK PLATT 



Born at Washington, Conn., July 19, 1827 

State Senator 1861-2 

State Representative 1 864-9 

United States Senator 1879-1905 

Died at Washington, Conn., April 21, 1905 



ADDRESS OF THE HON. JOHN C. SPOONER ON 

SENATOR PLATT 

Hon. John C. Spooner, introduced by Mr. Lines, delivered the 
following address on Senator Piatt: 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : We are here today to 
carry into effect, by appropriate ceremonial, a well-deserved tribute 
by the Commonwealth of Connecticut to two of her best loved 
sons, Orville H. Piatt and Joseph R. Hawley, upon whom she 
steadfastly conferred the highest honor within the gift of a state 
— by choosing them to represent her in the Senate of the United 
States. 

The part assigned to me in this ceremonial is to speak of 
Orville Hitchcock Piatt — a senator of the United States for over 
a quarter of a century from this commonwealth, with whom I 
was associated in that service for fifteen years. To me it is a 
labor of love, as for years we lived under the same roof, and 
until " God's finger touched him and he slept," I was honored by 
his friendship and unreservedly admitted to his confidence. 

It is not possible under the limitations of the occasion, nor is 
it at all needful in Connecticut, to dwell in detail upon his boy- 
hood, or the circumstances in which he grew to manhood. It is 
enough to say that he came of an ancestry, strong-fibered, liberty- 
loving and God-fearing. He was born upon a farm, owned and 
tilled by his father, who had been described by one who knew him 
as 

" A man of fine face and figure, intelligent, kindly and 
courteous, as one who took a prominent part in the politics of 
the town and religious meetings, and was forcible, modest and a 
convincing speaker." 

Of his mother the same person has written : — 

" That she was a stately, handsome woman, quiet in manner, 
prudent in speech, but positive in her convictions; finding her 
greatest pleasure in the life of the home, attention to her do- 
mestic duties, reading the Scriptures and standard works and 

9 



10 

teaching her boys by precept and example the virtues of good- 
ness, charity, sobriety and whatever else contributed to the de- 
velopment of sturdy self-reliance and manly manhood." 

The people of Connecticut need not to be told of his ancestry, 
the environment of his youth, or the circumstances which de- 
veloped his manhood. It is enough to say that he possessed the 
conscience of the Puritan, that he early learned the lessons of self- 
denial and self-help, that he was a hard and faithful worker in the 
school and in the field. In the one he acquired knowledge and 
mental discipline, in the other he developed that great physical 
vigor, which enabled him to honor at sight every draft made 
thereon during his long and arduous life. 

Contemporaneous with his birth and youth was the agitation 
against African slavery in the United States. The father and 
mother of Senator Piatt were abolitionists and the struggle be- 
tween freedom and slavery became acute in the neighborhood in 
which was his home. It divided congregations. It suppressed 
the school in which he was a student, and in which later he was 
an instructor ; it attached him irrevocably to the principles of 
liberty. The lessons which he learned in his youth and which 
were confirmed in his maturity he adhered to " without variable- 
ness or shadow of turning " to the hour of his death. It is quite 
impossible to dissociate from his career the convictions which 
came in his youth. They were taught him by his father and 
his mother. They became part of his cons(;jence and his very 
being. To hate oppression and injustice was a part of his youth, 
and it was a part of his manhood. Perhaps the ceaseless and 
powerful struggle, involving immense labor for years in the 
Senate, to protect the Indian tribes from injustice and the rapacity 
of the white man, in violation of treaty rights, was due somewhat 
to the teachings of the fireside of his boyhood home. It was a 
work which was near to his heart, and no one know better than he 
that in its performance he invited the hostility of the influential, 
and that the gratitude of the Indian, albeit sincere, would be silent 
and unimpressive. Senator Morgan of Alabama well said in 
the eulogy which he pronounced upon Senator Piatt, referring to 
his work in the committee on Indian affairs : — 

" The proud and silent nod of the grateful Indian in approba- 
tion of the equally proud and silent assistance of the great senator 



11 

was the only token of friendship between men who were sternly 
just in their actions, and neither of them asked nor expected 
nor granted favors." 

INDUSTRY AND FIDELITY IN STUDY 

He was enabled to acquire under the tutelage of a gifted 
teacher, and through his own industry and fidelity in study, an 
excellent education and a power of investigation and analysis 
which was evidently quite phenomenal. It is no surprise, when 
we keep in mind the characteristics of his youth, his industry and 
aptitude for acquiring knowledge, that he chose as his life work 
the profession of the law. That as a lawyer he was industrious, 
honorable and able is well attested by his success in the profession. 
The friends he gained, who still survive him, are still his friends. 
It is said that his practice in Meriden, then, of course, much 
smaller and less important than the Meriden of today, became 
large and lucrative. 

He early won the confidence of those among whom he lived. 
He was honored with positions locally and in the state on several 
occasions, having served a term as state's attorney of the county, 
and as secretary of state, besides having been speaker of the 
House of Eepresentatives of Connecticut, and ultimately he was 
chosen in a highly honorable way for the United States Senate 
by the General Assembly in January, 1879, and took his place 
in that august body on March 18, 1879, and from that day to the 
day of his death represented Connecticut therein. 

While appreciating the great honor conferred upon him by 
the State of Connecticut, he did not regard it as an honor, simply 
to be a senator of the United States, but rather he looked upon 
it as a great opportunity afforded to him by the commonwealth 
in which he was born, and to which he was devoted, to achieve 
for his state and for himself honor, by laborious and faithful 
service as a senator. A man fit to be a senator suddenly ushered 
into that body without previous experience in federal legislation, 
charged equally with those of large experience there with the 
intelligent solution of the varied problems with which the Senate 
has to deal, is very likely to regret for a time that success had 
crowned his ambition to become a senator. 

Orville Hitchcock Piatt, while self-reliant and self-respecting, 
was withal a modest man. and, with that good sense which always 
characterized him, he determined to fit himself for the duties 



12 

which inhere in the office by patient and dilligent study of each 
subject with which as a senator he was obliged to deal. From the 
day he entered it to the end of his service, he gave without 
stint to every question involving the public interest, the pains- 
taking investigation and reflection required to enable him to reach 
a correct conclusion. 

, He put to good use in the public service the habit of work 
which he had acquired in his youth ; the power of investigation 
which he had acquired in the schools, and in the study of the law 
and in the practice of his profession, and of the public questions 
with which he had been obliged to deal as a citizen and state 
official. He was essentially in all the relations of life a faithful 
man, loyal to his convictions, and persistent in fitting himself to 
discharge well every duty imposed upon him or intrusted to him. 

HIS AIM AS A SENATOR 

He entered the United States Senate with a determined pur- 
pose to make of himself what the people of Connecticut desired 
and expected him to be — what the people of the United States 
have a right to demand that a senator of the United States shall 
be. He realized from the beginning, what some who have been 
in his position have not been so quick to realize, that, while a sen- 
ator is chosen by his state, he is not a senator of the state which 
chose him, but he is a senator of the United States from the 
state which chose him. 

Rightly regarding his election to the Senate as affording him 
the honor of an opportunity to win for his state and for himself 
by able and devoted service to the people of the United States, 
he gave the best that was in him to the right solution of public 
questions and to the advocacy and promotion of sound policies. 
Loyal always to Connecticut, where any demand of the constit- 
uents, in his judgment, conflicted with the general public interest, 
it may, without fear of contradiction, be asserted of him that 
there has been no member of that body who with greater single 
heartedness sought to serve the interests of the people of the 
United States, and subordinate to that every interest of the people 
of the state in which he was born and reared, in which all of the 
associations of his life were centered, and which he not -only 
tenderly loved, but of which he was inexpressibly proud, than 
did he. 



13 

He carried into the national public life the same sense of 
responsibility that a high-minded executor or administrator does 
in conserving the interest which he represents in a fiduciary way, 
not only in large things but in small ones. Unless detained from 
the chamber by illness, he was during the sessions of the body 
always at his post of duty. He gave attention to every bill on the 
calendar ; he felt it to be his duty to defeat a claim, albeit trifling 
in amount, if it involved, in his judgment, a wrong or vicious 
principle, for he knew the pow^er of a wrong precedent in Con- 
gressional legislation. It was a part of the education of his boy- 
hood and youth to realize that " many a mickel makes a muckle," 
and that, whatever one may do with his own, acting in a repre- 
sentative capacity he has no right to sacrifice the interest of those 
whom he represents whether they be large or small. When a 
bill came before the Senate, if he arose and said : " Mr. President, 
let that bill go over," the introducer of that measure, if he knew 
it was of a doubtful merit, lost hope, for, when it came up again, 
he could be certain that the senator who had, by a word, stopped 
it for investigation, would be ready to fight it, approve it, or by 
amendment eliminate from it some vicious feature, or incorporate 
some safeguard for the future. As time went on he became a 
member of committees of larger importance — the committee on 
territories; the committee on patents; the committee on the 
judiciary; the committee on finance, and during all the years he 
kept as fully advised of the decisions of the supreme court upon 
constitutional and other questions involving federal litigation as 
if he were engaged in constant practice before that court, and 
moreover he familiarized himself with the principles of inter- 
national law. He devoted great study to financial questions, and 
was one of the strongest and most unflinching advocates of 
sound principles of finance and currency. He familiarized him- 
self with every phase almost of the tariff, and became familiar 
with almost every industry affected by it. 

In the latter years of his laborious service in the Senate, as 
the result of his steadfast investigation of public questions, his 
mastery of constitutional and international law, of finance, and 
economic principles and problems, brought him more and more 
to the front, and the retirement of senators, who had preceded 
his entrance to the body, impelled him as a matter of duty to 
take a more conspicuous position in the constructive work of the 



14 

Senate and in the debates upon questions of large and far reaching 
import. 

In the formulation of public policies and the advocacy of meas- 
ures of large concern, he had as chairman of the committee on 
territories, done great work and accomplished great results. He 
had as chairman of the committee on patents promoted legislation 
of great advantage to inventors and promotive of the inventive 
genius of the country. He had led in the enactment of adequate 
legislation in respect to the copyright, which secured to one a 
property right in the product of the mind. He had taken a con- 
spicuous part in the debate which attended the enactment of the 
interstate commerce law. He had opposed the anti-pooling sec- 
tion of that bill, and had strenuously contended that competitive 
railway companies be permitted to make agreements in respect o^ 
rates, subject to approval by the interstate commerce commission, 
but he had been defeated. My vote was against his proposition, 
but in justice to him I may be permitted to say here today that I 
reached the conclusion later that he was right and that I was 
wrong, and I took the first opportunity afforded me to publicly 
so avow. 

HIS WORK ON ANTI-TRUST BILL 

During the debate on the anti-trust bill, which lasted for 
weeks, and which from the standpoint of today is not so illuminat- 
ing in respect of the general principles involved as it seemed then 
to be, he rendered a service which has not been much referred to, 
but which should never be forgotten. The bill, introduced Decem- 
ber 4, 1889, by Mr. Sherman, and reported by him from the 
committee on finance, January 4, 1890, was discussed for several 
weeks, when Senator Piatt made a short speech against it. The 
bill provided : — 

" That all arrangements, contracts, agreements between two or 
more persons, which tend to prevent full and free competition in 
articles of growth, production and manufacture of any state or 
territory of the United States with similar articles of growth, pro- 
duction, or manufacture by another state or territory, and all ar- 
rangements between such persons which tend to advance the cost 
to the consumer of any such articles are hereby declared to be 
against public policy, unlawful and void." 

Senator Piatt said : — 

" In other words, this bill proceeds upon the false assumption 



15 

that all competition is beneficent to the country, and that every 
advance of price is an injury to the country. That is the as- 
sumption upon which this bill proceeds. There was never a 
greater fallacy in the world. Competition, which this bill pro- 
vides for, as between any two persons, must be full and free. 
Unrestricted competition is brutal warfare and injurious to the 
whole country. The great corporations in this country, the great 
monopolies in this country, are every one of them built upon 
the graves of weaker competitors that have been forced to their 
death by remorseless competition. I am entirely sick of this idea 
that the lower the prices are the better for the country, and 
that any arrangements made between persons engaged in business 
to advance prices, no matter how low they may be, is a wrong, and 
ought to be repressed and punished. The true theory of this 
matter is that prices should be just and reasonable and fair. No 
matter who is the producer, or what the article, it should render 
a fair return to all persons engaged in production, a fair profit on 
capital, on labor and everything else that enters into its produc- 
tion. With the price of any article I don't care whether wheat 
or iron; I don't care whether it is corn or silverware, whenever 
the price of any commodity is far below that standard the whole 
of the country suffers." 

He demonstrated his proposition. The words " trade and 
commerce " were not in the bill. It was directed solely against 
all contracts and combinations in restraint of full and free com- 
petition. Senator Piatt completely riddled it. After so doing, 
he said : — 

" So, Mr. President, I cannot vote for this bill in the shape in 
which I think it will come to a vote, or in any shape in which I 
think it will be perfected. I am ready to go to the people of the 
state of Connecticut. I have faith and confidence in them, and 
when I tell them that here is a bill which under the guise of deal- 
ing with trusts would strike a greater blow at their entire indus- 
tries, I know they will see it and understand it, and, if there be a 
people anywhere in this country who cannot understand it, it is 
better for a senator to answer to his judgment and his con- 
science than it is to answer to their misapprehension." 

The efifect of the argument, delivered as it was, was instant. 
Immediately a motion was made to refer the bill to the com- 
mittee on the judiciary, with instructions to report within twenty 
days, and the motion was carried, and it came back from the 
judiciary committee, of which Senator Piatt was a member, with 



16 

the words " full and free competition " stricken from it, and the 
words " trade and commerce " inserted in lieu of it, and generally 
redrafted and as so reported it is upon the statute book today. 

The supreme court, in its early construction, construed it as if 
the words " full and free competition " were in it. But after the 
lapse of many years, and after Senator Piatt had passed away, 
that court, under the leadership of the present chief justice, struck 
out the word " competition," and restored the words : " trade and 
commerce," so as to bring within the act only combinations and 
agreements which in the light of reason unduly restrain trade and 
commerce, and to leave open that large field which Senator Piatt 
saw must in the interest of the people be left for agreements in 
restraint of competition which promote trade and commerce up 
to the point where they not only cease to promote but unduly 
restrain trade and commerce. His intervention clarified the sub- 
ject and was an incalculable public service. 

He thought profoundly, and he had convictions, and he had 
moreover that thing without which convictions are of little, if 
any, worth — the courage of his convictions. He never seemed to 
give a thought in respect of any vote, or any speech delivered by 
him, of its possible effect on his popularity. He never uttered a 
word in the Senate with the slightest apparent reference to stage 
effect or public comment. He was true to his convictions. He 
would not do for any one in Connecticut, however powerful, what 
he thought to be against the interest of the people of the United 
States and he would do for Connecticut anything, and did so far 
as possible, which was, in his judgment, right in itself and com- 
patible with the general interest. He loved popularity — who 
does not? But he would not purchase it by a surrender of his 
convictions. He prized inexpressibly the popular confidence and 
respect, which was evoked by able, loyal and faithful service, 
and that he ^ave, and that confidence and respect he received, and, 
although no longer among us, is receiving today, 

PROBLEM FOLLOWING THE SPANISH WAR 

The treaty by which the war with Spain was terminated 
brought to the United States the cession of the Philippines and 
of Porto Rico. Spain also relinquished her title and sovereignty 
to and over the island of Cuba, then in military occupation of the 
United States. The close of the war brought novel responsi- 



17 

bilities and imposed new duties upon this government, involving 
legislation in respect of the Philippines and of Porto Rico, present- 
ing questions of grave moment and much intricacy. These 
questions were much debated in the Senate. The power of the 
United States to acquire the Philippines was challenged there. 
Senator Piatt in an admirably reasoned and eloquent speech 
maintained the existence of the power. In that speech he said : — 

" We are under the obligation and direction of a higher 
power with reference to our duty in the Philippine Islands. The 
United States of America has a high call to duty, to a moral duty, 
to a duty to advance the cause of free government in the world 
by something more than example. It is not enough to say to a 
country over which we have acquired an undisputed and indis- 
putable sovereignty ' Go your own gait ; look at our example.' 
In the entrance of the harbor of New York, our principal port, 
there is the Statue of Liberty enlightening the world. Look at 
that, and follow our example! 

" No, Mr. President. When the Anglo-Saxon race crossed 
the Atlantic, and stood on the shores of Massachusetts Bay and on 
Ptymouth Rock, that movement meant something more than the 
establishment of civil and religious liberty within a narrow, con- 
fined and limited compass. It had in it the force of the Almighty ; 
and from that day to this it has been spreading, widening and 
extending until, like the stone seen by Daniel in his vision, cut 
out of the mountain without hands, it has filled all our borders, 
and ever westward across the Pacific that influence which found 
its home in the Mayflower and its development on Plymouth 
Rock has been extending and is extending its sway and its bene- 
ficence. I believe, Mr. President, that the time is coming, is as 
surely coming as the time when the world shall be Christianized, 
when the world shall be converted to the cause of free govern- 
ment, and I believe the United States is a providentially appointed 
agent for that purpose. The day may be long in coming, and it 
may be in the far future, but he who has studied the history of 
this Western World from the 22nd day of December, 1620, to 
the present hour must be blind indeed, if he cannot see that the 
cause of free government in the world is still progressing, and 
that what the United States is doing in the Philippine Islands is 
in the extension of that beneficent purpose." 

It is but a little time since he was laid away in the cemetery 
near which his parents lived and where he was born. The 
im.promptu speech from which this language is quoted was de- 
livered with great power, intensity, and true eloquence. Since 



18 

that day the people of China have overthrown an ancient dynasty, 
forced the abdication of the Emperor, and China is today governed 
with the approval or acquiescence of her people, by a provisional 
republican government, which awaits the action of the Chinese 
people in respect of a permanant constitution and a permanent 
republican government. This senator from Connecticut spoke 
with the foresight of a prophet. He possessed that fine insight 
which is the genius of real statesmanship. 

The peculiar status of Cuba which was occupied by the army 
of the United States and under military government, cast upon us 
not only a grave responsibility but a complicated and perplexing 
problem. The congress had, in the joint resolution, under which 
the war was inaugurated, not only decently but wisely disclaimed 
any purpose to acquire Cuba, from which it followed that we 
would occupy Cuba only until under our guidance and with our 
aid the Cuban people could form and maintain a government of 
their own. It, therefore, became necessary to establish the com- 
mittee on " relations with Cuba," and Senator Piatt by common 
consent was made chairman of that committee, of which at his 
earnest request I became a member. When this government be- 
came satisfied that the pacification of Cuba was complete, measures 
were taken under military supervision, by direction of the Presi- 
dent, to facilitate the formation by the people of a government of 
their own, and to that end provision was made for the calling of a 
convention to frame a constitution. 

There were many reasons why the people of Cuba in their 
own interest, as well as in the interest of the United States, should 
not be permitted to form a government without provisions em- 
bodied also in a perpetual treaty with the United States, containing 
irrevocable safeguards against improvident action weakening 
their independence, and giving this government a permanent right 
to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence ; the 
maintenance of a government for the protection of life, property 
and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with 
respect to Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United 
States, thence to be assumed and undertaken by the government 
of Cuba. 

Senator Piatt called a formal meeting of the committee on re- 
lations with Cuba, and submitted to the committee a draft of 
what is known as the Piatt amendment, which, with slight, if any, 



19 

changes was adopted by resolution of the committee on February 
26, reported by the chairman to the Senate, and on the same 
day offered by him as an amendment to the army appropriation 
bill then pending, and adopted on the 27th of February by a vote 
of 43 to 20, a strict party division. While limiting the power of 
Cuba, it was intended to *safeguard the independence of Cuba, 
and it is not susceptible of doubt that such has been, and " in the 
long reach of time " will continue to be, its effect. 

STORY OF THE PLATT AMENDMENT 

It is known, and justly known, as the "Piatt amendment." 
Some doubt has been cast upon his right to be regarded as its 
author, and in justice to this able, faithful and splendid public 
servant, I beg to be permitted to say here what I know about 
drafting the Piatt amendment. One evening Senator Piatt came 
to my working room — we both lived at the Arlington Hotel — 
where I was dictating letters to my secretary. Senator Piatt car- 
ried in his hand a paper. He said to me : " Spooner, I am sick 
with the grip" (and he looked ill). "I wish you would help 
me put in shape a provision which must be embodied in the consti- 
tution of Cuba, or appended to it as an irrevocable ordinance and 
in a permanent treaty." 

He handed me the paper referred to. I, of course, promptly 
acquiesced, and we talked the matter over with reference to what 
should be added, if anything, to the subjects indicated on his 
paper. We discussed as I remember the advisability of adding a 
provision which would safeguard the continued sanitation of the 
cities of the island, and protect our commerce and our southern 
ports and people from the ravages of yellow fever and other epi- 
demic and infectious diseases. When we had agreed upon the 
subjects, I dictated to my secretary, in the presence of Senator 
Piatt (stopping and being stopped now and then for consultation), 
what it seemed would cover adequately the subjects which we had 
agreed were necessary to be embodied in it. It was written out, 
and we went over it carefully together with a view to improving 
and perfecting its phraseology where it seemed to be called for. 
I do not remember precisely what these changes, which were 
verbal, were. There was on the paper which Senator Piatt 
handed to me, a memorandum of every subject which is embraced 
ill the Piatt amendment, excepting the clause in respect of sanita- 



20 

tion. We agreed upon it and I directed my secretary to make 
three fair copies, so that we could have them early the next morn- 
ing, at which time I gave two to Senator Piatt and kept one myself, 
and at his request I accompanied him to the White House. 

President McKinley promptly received us, and Senator Piatt 
handed him a copy of the draft. He read it carefully and an- 
nounced that it was precisely what he wanted. He asked Senator 
Piatt for a copy, which he said he wished to send to Secretary 
Root as soon as he could. Whether Senator Piatt gave him his 
copy, or I gave him mine, I do not remember, but one or the other 
of us gave him a copy. That day it was presented informally to 
members of the committee, who were called together for the pur- 
pose, and carefully considered. If any changes were made in it, 
and I do not remember that any were made, they were very 
trifling ones. The democratic members treated it fairly and while 
not willing to vote for it — and it was out of order as being gen- 
eral legislation on an appropriation*bill, and if objected to would 
necessarily have been ruled out of order — even those who re- 
corded their votes against it forbore to raise a point of order and 
it went into the bill and became a law. He undoubtedly had 
consulted others, but it would be at variance with his conduct 
through life for him to permit to be imputed to him the authorship 
of a document which had been originated and drawn by another. 

Take him all in all, his great ability, his industry, his fidelity, 
the high standard which he set for himself as a public servant, his 
courage, his modesty, his unfaltering loyalty to the public interest, 
his sincerity, his hatred of sham and demagogy, he was an ideal 
senator of the United States. 

AN IDEAL AMERICAN 

He was an intense American, and thought the Constitution of 
the United States the finest charter of government ever drafted 
for a people. He realized that there would be times when the 
people would grow restless of its restraints and under rash but 
attractive leadership might stray from the path so wisely and so 
clearly marked by the fathers who established the government. 
But he never permitted it to worry him. He realized that one of 
the purposes which led the people to adopt a written constitution 
was to protect themselves against themselves in times of passion 
and excitement. 



21 

He had an abiding faith in the sober second thought of the 
American people, and while he thought the people in a relatively 
small area might eii masse make their own laws, pass their own 
ordinances, and adequately consider and manage their affairs, 
that in a large territory and population, the only practical govern- 
ment was the representative government established by the fathers 
of the republic. To him it seemed continuously essential that the 
independence of the co-ordinate branches of the government 
should neither be invaded nor diminished, and that the reserved 
rights of the states should be scrupulously respected. He deemed 
it vital that the independence of the judiciary throughout the 
Union should be religiously maintained. He realized that evils 
and abuses would creep into administration, both in the states and 
in the nation, but he could not be persuaded that in our country 
evils or abuses could ever exist, the eradication of which would 
require the abandonment of any of the fundamental principles of 
the government under the constitution. 

THE REWARD OF SERVICE 

He said once to me — speaking of the sacrifice from some 
standpoints which public service demanded — that one who 
entered it and devoted himself to it could see no reward for the 
toil and sacrifice of such a life but the consciousness that one was 
really serving the people to his uttermost and was accorded by 
the people without reserve their confidence, respect, and gratitude. 
That, he said, among such a people, " is reward enough." He 
was a loyal friend, a generous colleague, a charming comrade, and, 
while rather stern in mien at times, was at heart as tender and 
sympathetic as a woman. 

You all knew his love of nature; how it delighted him to 
wander in the woods ; to study the trees and the flowers ; to listen 
to the voices of the birds and to the sweet music of the rippling 
water. It was a long, rugged and toilsome journey from the farm 
in Judea, to the lofty eminence upon which he died, but he 
traveled it man fashion, with strong heart, honest purpose, un- 
clouded mind and unafraid. 

Connecticut has done a just and gracious act by placing in her 
Capitol this memorial tablet, reproducing his form and features 
at once a triumph of the artist's skill and a beautiful tribute by 



22 

tlie state he loved. It was not needed to keep the memory of 
him alive in the hearts of those who knew and trusted him. But 
it will be an object lesson, to generations yet to come, in patriotism, 
personal honor, statesmanship, and supreme loyalty to the high- 
est standard of noble conduct in the service of the people. When- 
ever Connecticut in the years to come, from time to time shall 
" count her jewels," she will find among them all — and she has 
many, and will have more — none more flawless or of finer luster 
than the life and public service of Orville Hitchcock Piatt. 







^ OS W t L t 



JOSEPH ROSWELL HAWLEY 



Born at Stewartsville, N. C, October 31, 1826 

Brevet Major-General U. S. V. 1865 

Governor of Connecticut 1866 

Member of Congress 1872-81 

United States Senator 1881 1905 

Died at Washington. D. C. March 17. 1905 



ADDRESS OF 
THE REV. DR. PARKER ON SENATOR HAWLEY 



Rev. Dr. Edwin Pond Parker, introduced by Mr. Brooker, 
delivered the following address on Senator Hawley : — 

Joseph Roswell Hawley was a descendant in the eighth gener- 
ation from Joseph Hawley who came from England to Boston in 
1629, and subsequently settled in Stratford, Connecticut. His 
father was Eev. Francis Hawley, a native of Farmington in this 
state, who spent a portion of his earlier years in North Carolina, 
where he married Mary McLeod, in which state and in the town 
of Stewartsville, on the 31st day of October, 1826, their son, Joseph 
Roswell was born. The household came to Connecticut in 1837, 
and the son attended the Hartford Grammar School, and, after- 
ward, a school at Cazenovia, New York, whither the family had 
removed. Pie entered Hamilton College and graduated with honor 
in the class of 1847, having won distinction as a speaker and de- 
bater. One of his friends in school and college was Charles 
Dudley Warner, who came to Hartford in i860 and was there- 
after until his death, intimately associated with General Hawley. 
He taught in schools, studied law, and in 1849 returned to Connec- 
ticut, was admitted to the bar in Hartford in 1850, wdiere, to- 
gether with the late John Hooker, he opened a law office. His 
father, his partner and his uncle, David Hawley with whom he 
then resided, were staunch anti-slavery men. No persuasions 
were necessary to induce him to follow in their train. In so doing 
he simply obeyed the dictates of his own reason and conscience, 
in the face of strong dissuasions. Only those who remember 
what displeasure and antipathy they incurred who, in those days, 
openly espoused the anti-slavery cause, can appreciate the moral 
courage of a young lawyer on the threshold of his career in adopt- 
ing and advocating opinions so distasteful to many of his friends, 
so repugnant to the major part of his townsmen, and, apparently, 
so unfavorable to his professional prospects. It is pleasant to add 
that he did not fail to win the respect and confidence of the com- 
munity, and that his law business sustained no serious detriment. 

23 



24 

Young Hawley harbored nothing of the immoderation and 
fanaticism which some of the anti-slavery agitators unfortunately 
exhibited. The Union and the Constitution were sacred to him. 
But he believed human slavery to be unspeakably iniquitous and 
pernicious, and seeing it, just then, arrogant and aggressive, de- 
manding new concessions, putting forth alarming pretensions, and 
energetic for extension he regarded it with abhorrence as not only 
the peculiar sin and shame of the nation but its peculiar peril as 
well. His policy was that which Mr. Lincoln, some time later, 
stated, " to arrest the further spread of slavery in the land, and 
to place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is 
in the course of ultimate extinction." He was a progressive Free- 
Soiler, and a conservative Abolitionist. Nevertheless, between 
this kgitimate position and that of the pro-slavery agitators and 
their Northern apologists there was only fighting ground. Re- 
membering those days it seems to me that Hawley's sterling vir- 
tues never shone with purer luster than when as a young man and 
in the face of obloquy, he unhesitatingly chose the better part, 
glad of its cross and heedless of its shame. 

KEY TO HIS CAREER 

Then it was — to borrow Senator McLean's famous figure — 
that he clasped hands with " the better genius of the Republic," 
with whom " he walked hand in hand for almost half a century." 
The clue to this man's whole career is in the fact that he began it 
with the immense advantage of this great choice and prepossession. 

OUTLINE OF HIS CAREER 

He became chairman of the Free-Soil committee of Hartford 
in 1 85 1, and employed both pen and voice to unify and organize 
the anti-slavery forces. He was a delegate to the Free-Soil Na- 
tional Convention in 1852. On February 4, 1856, upon his call 
and in his office, the first meeting for the organization of the 
republican party in Connecticut was held. He took an active 
part in the Fremont campaign, one result of which was the es- 
tablishment of his reputation as a remarkably popular and efifect- 
ive stump-speaker. From 1857 until the outbreak of the war he 
edited the " Hartford Evening Press," the organ of the new 
party. President Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 sol- 
diers to serve for three months, dated April 15, 1861, was pub- 
lished here on Tuesday, April 16, and on the evening of April 17 



25 

a memorable mass-meeting of the citizens of Hartford, irre- 
spective of party affiliations, was held, at which Hawley made one 
of his rousing speeches and was greeted with great enthusiasm. 
For it was known that already on that same day, a company had 
been recruited of which George S. Burnham was elected captain 
and Joseph R. Hawley first-lieutenant. A few days after, Burn- 
ham was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of the First Regiment 
and Hawley became captain of his company, the first one ac- 
cepted by the state. Mr. Warner, — a man no less distinguished 
by the purity and loveliness of his personal character than by his 
celebrity in the realm of literature, — at whose funeral General 
Hawley said, " for fifty-seven years we lived as brothers, without 
a single controversy or passage of ill-feeling," was already en- 
gaged with the " Evening Press." Then came Stephen A. Hub- 
bard, who had been with Edmund C. Stedman on the " Winsted 
Herald," a quiet, modest man of remarkable sagacity and content 
with inconspicuous usefulness. 

IN THE ARMY 

Confiding the conduct of the " Press " to these two persons, 
from that time onward so long as they lived foremost among 
General Hawley's most intimate and helpful friends, the anti- 
slavery editor and agitator entered upon his new career. The 
eloquence of his example exceeding that of his utterances captured 
all hearts and made him the object of an admiration which 
thenceforward never waned nor wavered. At the expiration 
of three months he promptly re-enlisted, became lieutenant- 
colonel and then colonel of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, 
and in the course of the war rose by successive and merited 
promotions to the rank of Brevet Major General of United 
States Volunteers, conferred " for gallant and meritorious 
services during the war." In several of the thirteen or 
fourteen battles in which he participated, his conduct was such 
as to elicit official praise for " conspicuous gallantry " and for 
" distinguished courage and ability." But his military service cov- 
ered an unusually wide range of duties in a variety of important 
positions, all of which he discharged with an alacrity, fidelity and 
ability which won for him the commendation of his superior offi- 
cers, the approval of the government and of his state, the affection 
of the soldiers under his command, and the enduring reputation 



26 

of a gallant, valiant and efficient soldier. Some of the men who, 
fifty years ago, served under him and shared with him the fortunes 
and misfortunes of war are here present. In the name of this 
Commonwealth of Connecticut, in the name of their beloved com- 
mander, and in behalf of all here assembled, I reverently salute the 
survivors of the Seventh Regiment, and breathe the prayer that 
by the blessing of God upon their declining days they may find 
comfort and cheer both in the sacred memories of past services 
and sacrifices, and in the bright hopes set before them and shining 
upon them in their evening sky. 

IN PUBLIC OFFICE 

General Hawley was elected governor of the State of Connec- 
ticut in April, 1866, and in 1867 resumed editorial work on the 
" Hartford Courant," then united with the " Evening Press." 
But he preferred the platform to the desk, and the welcome that 
greeted his every appearance on the rostrum and the remarkable 
favor with which his public speeches were everywhere received, 
justified that preference. He was president of the National 
Republican Convention in 1868, secretary of the committee on 
resolutions in 1872, and chairman of that committee in 1876, 
and had much to do in shaping and in advocating the issues upon 
which his party went before the country at that period. He was 
president of the United States Centennial Commission from its 
organization in 1872 until its dissolution in 1877, and of the his- 
torical Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, and his earnest and 
successful endeavors against opening that exhibition on the Lord's 
Day are not forgotten. He represented his state in the lower 
house of Congress in 1873, and subsequently in the Forty -third 
and Forty-sixth Congress, serving there on the committees on 
claims, banking and currency, military affairs and appropriations. 
He was elected United States Senator in 1881 and thereafter in 
1887, in 1893 and in 1899. His most important service in Wash- 
ington was probably that performed as chairman of the Senate 
committee on civil service reform and on military affairs. He 
vigorously promoted the enactment of civil service reform legis- 
lation, and, as chairman of the committee on military affairs, for 
which he was eminently qualified both by his executive ability 
and his military experience, he sustained a burden both onerous 
and honorable, with great usefulness. The labors entailed upon 



27 

him in that position during the Spanish War contributed not a 
httle to break down his health and strength. The honorary 
degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by his Ahna 
Mater, Hamilton College, in 1875, and by Yale University in 
1886. 

A RELIGIOUS MAN 

General Hawley was a reverent and religious man. In the 
maturity of his years he publicly professed the Christian faith 
which from childhood he had cherished, and united with the 
church in Hartford of which his beloved friend and fellow-sol- 
dier, Joseph H. Twichell, was the pastor, and frequently par- 
ticipated in religious conferences and conventions, either as 
presiding over them or as speaking in them concerning matters 
pertaining to the duties and work of the church in its relation 
to public affairs. 

Such is a bare outline of his long, eventful, useful and hon- 
orable career, the details of which might make a volume. 
Through all the vicissitudes of tempestuous years he kept the faith 
of early profession and fought the good fight thereof with cheer- 
ful courage until failing health disabled him. After a protracted 
illness he passed away in the early morning of March 18, 1905, 
in the eightieth year of his age. 

TRIBUTES AT HIS FUNERAL 

His obsequies, attended here, in Capitol and sanctuary, were 
marked by most impressive demonstrations of affectionate 
respect. Pulpit and press, men of all parties, professions and 
creeds contributed to compose such a garland of praise as is sel- 
dom laid upon the breast of man at his burial. From that pro- 
fusion of praise I quote one sentence spoken by his colleague, 
Senator Piatt: "No truer man ever lived; no braver man ever 
fought on the battlefield or in the struggle of life ; no more loyal 
son of Connecticut ever lived within her borders, loyal to his 
friends, to his people, to his state, to the nation, to truth, and to 
God himself." That which is said of David in Holy Scripture 
might be his befitting epitaph : " So, after he had served the will 
of God, in his own age, he fell asleep and was gathered unto his 
fathers." 

On the first day of March, 1907, a debate occurred in the 
United States Senate in the course of which many Senators spoke 



28 

of General Hawley's services to the country in terms of highest 
praise. One of them related the following anecdote : " When 
I left the Senate in 1891, I had then three riding horses of which 
I was fond, and which I would not sell, but was willing to give 
away. I offered one to General Hawley. This was long ago 
when he was strong, a strong, chivalrous gentleman he always 
was. He thanked me with tears in his eyes and said : ' I have 
not money enough to pay for his keep ; give him to some senator 
who is able to take care of him.' " 1 quote these words of ex- 
Senator Spooner, as they are set down in the Congressional Rec- 
ord, because they show, in a pathetic manner, how utterly incom- 
mensurate with the work he performed and the service he 
rendered was the remuneration which he received therefor, and 
how much, or rather how little he was worth in dollars and cents 
after nearly fifty years of public service. With him 

" The path of duty was the way to glory. 
Whatever record leap to light 
He never shall be shamed : — 
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
Nor paltered with eternal God for power, 
Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke 
All great self-seekers trampling on the right. 
Eternal honor to his name." 

Glancing now, more particularly, at some of General Hawley's 
most distinctive traits and qualities, we find, first of all, that they 
were all grounded in a fundamental and predominant natural 
honesty. Out of this came that consuming and contagious pas- 
sion for what he deemed right, of which we have already spoken. 
With the people generally he was " Honest Joe Hawley," long 
before and after other official titles were conferred upon him. 
Honesty of nature means simplicity as well as sincerity of char- 
acter, truth in the inward parts, and no hidden things of dishon- 
esty or deceitfulness. Therefore, his hands were clean, his eye 
single, and, like Sir Galahad " his strength was as the strength of 
ten because his heart was pure." 

A GENTLEMAN 

General Hawley had the natural instincts and the acquired 
habits, manners and morals of a gentleman, not of the veneering 
sort of a thin and polished politeness, but of that other kind, of 



29 

which Sir Roger de Coverly, Benjamin Franklin and Colonel 
Newcome are different specimens, whose gentlemanly qualities 
all true gentlemen instantly recognize as wrought into the grain 
and texture of character, essential, solid and substantial. Doubt- 
less he was sometimes, in the eagerness of his very earnestness, 
a little rough and perhaps imperious, but inwardly and obviously 
a brave, true, honorable, hearty, wholesome, generous and genial 
gentleman, whose natural dignity and simplicity gave his courtesy 
a grace beyond all art of courtliness, and whose visible human 
kindness and tender-heartedness gave to every gentlemanly virtue 
a peculiar charm. He was a fruit of Puritanism grown ripe and 
mellow. Conscientious as a Puritan, he was chivalrous as a cava- 
lier. Severely tested in this particular by the provocations of 
political controversies, he stood that test, was courteous in com- 
bat, fought fair, and could salute either a victorious or a van- 
quished, if honorable, antagonist. Sometimes vehement and even 
volcanic in utterance, I doubt if he ever polluted his lips or dis- 
graced debate with the dialect of vituperation. That which he 
said of a public man whose opinions he detested : " We must 
judge opinions by the light we have, and men by the light they 
have," was characteristic of his justice and generosity. That 
other famous sentence, " Uncle Sam must be a gentleman," was 
no cunningly-coined phrase, but the spontaneous expression of a 
ruling sentiment within him. He was just the kind of a gentle- 
man that "Uncle Sam " and Uncle Sam's public men ought to be. 

HIS APPEARANCE AND MANNER 

General Hawley's personal appearance, carriage and de- 
meanor were unusually indicative of some of his striking char- 
acteristics. A casual, if keen, observer might have inferred such 
things in him as vigor of mind, energy of will, a commanding 
spirit, uprightness and straight-forwardness, positive convictions 
and the courage of them, a big and breezy generosity of good 
nature, and an ardent temperament capable of impulsive and im- 
petuous manifestations. In the kindly light that so often shone 
in his deep, clear, searching eyes and irradiated his strong- 
featured face, in the cordiality that so often gave a peculiar win- 
someness to his voice and manner, there were signs of other and 
gentler qualities more fully disclosed to acquaintance. He was 
a man of strong affections and attachments, a loving and a lovable 



30 

man. Underneath a rugged exterior there was a most beautiful 
and bountiful brotherly-kindness, and living springs of almost 
feminine tenderness, of which every comrade and friend was 
aware. His heart was democratic in its hospitality, catholic in 
its sympathy and charity. Let it not pass without honorable 
mention here that, when the occasion came, this man stood up as 
bravely and spoke out as boldly for the yellow man and for 
justice to him, as he had done for the black man and the red. 

Much as there was in him to inspire respect and to invite 
confidence, there was also something to warn the unwary and to 
ward off the crooked and perverse. Mr. Facing-Both-Ways 
and all his sort of folks were likely to find him somewhat curt 
and brusque. It was obviously difficult for him to conceal his 
impatience with duplicity, his contempt for moral cowardice, his 
disgust for impurity, his indignation and wrath against " what- 
soever worketh abomination or maketh a lie." Therefore, in cer- 
tain moral, or immoral atmospheric conditions, the sunshine and 
serenity of his habitual good nature assumed an aspect overcast 
and menacing as that of a summer-day sky in a thunder storm. 
He mightily loved righteousness and equally hated iniquity and 
whatever fault there may have been in his outspokenness concern- 
ing such things was the defect of a virtue. One might say that 
at times his very honesty was ungovernable. 

AN OPTIMIST 

General Hawley was an ingrained optimist, " a man of hope 
and forward-looking mind." He scouted all lamentations over 
the decay or decline of either religion, morality, or patriotism. 
He believed that " the best is yet to be," and rejoiced in the sure 
though often unsteady forward-marching of mankind and in the 
ultimate triumph of good over evil. This disposition to the most 
hopeful views made him 

" A man of cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows," 

and was an element of his strength ; and the outshining of this 
gladsome light of faith and hope within him was a means of much 
refreshment and blessing to many. 

Accordingly General Hawley was an eminently social man. 
He could mix as well as mingle with men, and was capable of 
mirth, hilarity and innocent convivialities. Some can recall how 



31 

he loved to lift up and let loose that deep, melodious voice of his 
in song, singing with equal fervor, as suitable to the occasion, 
" Rock of Ages " in the sanctuary, " Marching Through Georgia " 
at the camp-fire ; " Roll Jordan, Roll," at the fireside, or Thack- 
eray's jovial ballad at the Club. One can almost hear again the 
rumble and roar of his laughter as some shaft of wit went to the 
mark ; and then an arrow from his quiver and the twang of his 
stout bow ; and his boyish glee, in the rivalry and revelry of 
story, song and jest — for this man never quite outgrew his boy- 
hood. In all such playfulness his natural dignity never deserted 
him. He thought too highly of it either to lay it aside or to assert 
it by standing upon it. It simply took care of itself, and made 
impossible for or with him any familiarities that smacked of in- 
decency or impropriety. 

Among the various characters depicted in Bunyan's immortal 
allegory are several that personify certain sterling qualities 
already designated as characteristic of General Hawley. But in 
the second part of that story a new character appears who 
seems to combine in himself the several virtues of those charac- 
ters with certain other fine and noble qualities peculiar to himself, 
whose appropriate name is Greatheart. I cannot give a better 
summary description of General Hawley than by that Greatheart 
figure, in whose composite character Honest, Faithful, Hopeful, 
Standfast and Valiant-For-Truth were comprised and blended. 

HIS POWER AS A PUBLIC SPEAKER 

By a plenteous endowment of requisite gifts and aptitudes, 
physical, intellectual, moral and emotional, and by a diligent use 
and improvement of the same. General Hawley was thoroughly 
equipped for that vocation of a public speaker to which he was 
effectually called, and in which by his power of fluent, forcible 
and persuasive speech he performed a distinguished public service 
and obtained for himself an excellent report. He had some- 
thing to say, and said it straight-forwardly and positively, with 
an air and manner of assurance and authority, in racy, sinewy 
Anglo-Saxon words, to which a -superb physical presence and 
action gave weight and emphasis, an obvious sincerity gave 
persuasion, a glowing earnestness gave warmth and color, and 
a vibrant and resonant voice gave wings and music. He paid lit- 
tle heed, perhaps too little, to those things which adorn discourse 



32 

and give it grace and charm. The texture of his style was not 
smooth and soft Hke silk, but like homespun, rugged, strong and 
suitable. His speech was the image of his mind. There were 
few dulcet notes in his periods, but through them all the ring 
and rhythm of a brave sincerity and truth. He had the knack of 
making an impressive statement of plain facts, and the rare power 
of presenting homely and familiar truths in something of their 
original freshness and sanctity. Occasionally came gleams of 
humor and flashes of mother-wit, but, sooner or later, in almost 
every speech, some level sentence in which the whole argument 
was packed in solid, concrete form and shot home to the mark ; 
as when, at the republican convention at Chicago, in 1868, over 
which he presided, he gave repudiation a knockdown blow with 
the memorable sentence " Remember that every dollar of the na- 
tion's debt is as sacred as a soldier's grave!" His oratory so 
expressed himself, his vital convictions, his vigor, ardor, ear- 
nestness, intensity, and the unanimity of all his powers, that one 
may safely say that no man in Connecticut of his generation, 
spoke to his fellow citizens more acceptably, forcibly and effect- 
ually than he. 

AN IMPOLITIC POLITICIAN 

The faults of a public man of frank and open nature and 
fervid temperament are usually obvious. It was so with Gen- 
eral Hawley. No report of him would be truthful that did not, 
in general terms, frankly acknowledge this. But any such 
acknowledgment would be grossly unjust that did not preclude 
all supposition of moral delinquencies. There was no stain on 
his character, no blot on his escutcheon. Such faults as he had 
were negative, incidental, superficial — failings or foibles rather 
than faults, distinctly impolitic in a politician, and such as might 
have seriously handicapped an ordinary man. But General 
Hawley was much more, everyway, than a politician, and was an 
extraordinary man. He was otherwise and in his altogetherness 
a man of such intellectual and moral soundness, dignity, weight 
and strength, of such promptitude and energy and forwardness at 
every clear call of duty, that those things which sometimes, in the 
treadmill routine of ordinary affairs, had the appearance of weak- 
ness, sat lightly and loosely upon him, were shaken off by the 
arousal of responsibility, and were universally regarded as of 
minor concern. 






PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN HIM 

One test of a public man's real greatness is his ability, 
especially his moral ability, to obtain that public confidence and 
co-operation which will supplement his personal incolnpleteness. 
How did General Hawley stand that test? There was some- 
thing in him by virtue of which he ever drew to himself, from 
out the mass of men, the better sort, as a magnet attracts from a 
heap of sand the precious particles therein. He had about him 
here a body-guard composed of strong and sagacious men de- 
voted to the promotion of both his cause and his interests, whose 
counsels, corrections and manifold assistance supplied what he 
lacked and otherwise contributed to his success. Moreover, a 
great majority of the thoughtful, patriotic and God-fearing people 
of Connecticut so admired, trusted and appreciated him, were so 
fond and proud and sure of him, that in so far as any failings 
on his part were brought to their notice, they put them aside, 
and stood by him as in firm phalanx, and backed him up as with 
a solid rampart of public moral sentiment and support, eager to 
give him their highest offices and greatest honors. One needs 
only to consider the import of that affinity with right-minded 
people, and what it signifies in him that he could and did attract 
and attach that cohort of devoted friends and helpers, and could 
and did create that rampart of public confidence and moral senti- 
ment, in order to perceive what manner of man he was in a 
variety of sterling virtues, how sound and strong in his totality ; 
and also to perceive that, whatever his failings may have been, 
they were little more than so many eddies on the surface of the 
deep, strong, steady main-current of his character and conduct. 

HARRIET FOOTE HAWLEY 

In the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford may 
be seen a memorial tablet in honor of the noble woman who in 
1855 became General Hawley's wife, and who died in 1886. It 
was placed there by the veterans of the Seventh Connecticut 
Regiment in grateful remembrance of her ministrations and 
benefactions to the soldiers of that regiment during the war. 
Its inscription reads, " By the grace of God Harriet Foote Hawley 
lived a helpful life, brave, tender and true, a soldier and servant 
of Jesus Christ." I quote these words, true of both husband and 
wife, because they enable me to express the otherwise almost in- 
3 



34 

expressible value of what she did for him. The grace of God 
by which he also "lived a helpful life, brave, tender and true, a 
soldier and servant of Jesus Christ," was in large measure con- 
ferred upon him through her gentle, wise, loving and constant 
ministrations : — as in his later and declining days the same 
grace was bestowed upon him through the similar ministrations 
of the devoted wife who, with their two children, survives him. 

Most of General Hawley's old comrades in arms, of his com- 
peers in political life and of those who personally knew him have 
passed away. Of his intimate friends only a feeble remnant re- 
mains. With few exceptions 

" The names he loved to hear 
Have been carved for many a year 
On the tomb." 

HIS ENDURING NAME AND FAME 

But when all in whose personal recollections he now lives 
shall have disappeared, his name and fame, inscribed upon a scroll 
of honor which neither time can stain nor dust can dim, will be 
illustrious and enduring. The vivid picture of his vigorous per- 
sonality together with the story of his manifold patriotic ser- 
vices will be transmitted from one generation to another. In the 
pages of that thrilling chapter of our national history which, by 
voice and pen and sword and civil service, he helped to make : 
in that larger liberty and more abundant welfare of all our 
people to which he made such generous contributions ; and in the 
honor and reverence of a grateful posterity, Joseph R. Hawley. 
surviving all mortal memories, will continue to live, a perpetual 
presence and a power among the foremost of Connecticut's un for- 
gotten worthies. 

HIS LEGACY TO THE PEOPLE OF CONNECTICUT 

How much was this man worth when he died? An imper- 
fect description of the kind of poverty he acquired has been 
herein given, but no exact estimation of his wealth or worth seems 
possible. Any inventory of that rich estate would be worthless 
that did not contain the following chief items : The moral 
heroism of his self-consecration to high ideals in the morning of 
his manhood and the continuity of that consecration unto death ; 



35 

that loyalty, of which his lamented colleague testified. ' to his 
friends, to his people, to his state, to the nation, to truth, and to 
God himself " ; the luminous record of his distinguished public 
service ; the triumphs oi his eloquence, the trophies of his valor, 
the testimonies to his statesmanship; the integrity, purity and 
magnanimity of his personal character ; his bright and inspiring 
example of whatsoever things are praiseworthy and of good re- 
port ; the music and the magic of his name; the unsullied 
chastity of his renown. This wealth, all that he was v/crth, he 
bequeathed to his dear people of Connecticut, a priceless' legacy, 
tc be theirs and their heirs" forever. Alay the everlasting Light 
shine upon him, here and yonder, forevermore! 

Respectfully submitted, 

H. Wales Lines, 
Henry Dryhurst^ 
Alton Farrel, 
Lewis Sperry, 
Charles L. Hubbard^ 
Erick H. Rossiter, 

Commission on Memorial to Senator Piatt. 

Charles F. Brooker, 
Charles Hopkins Clark, 
norris g. osborn, ' 
George P. McLean, 
Marcus H. Holcomb, 
Thomas D. Bradstreet, 
Morgan (i. Bulkeley, 
Commission on Memorial to Senator Haivley. 

Burton Mansfield, 
Charles Noel Flagg, 
Bernadotte Perrin, 
H. Siddons Mowbray, 
George D. Seymour, 
Arthur L. Shipman, 

Commission of Sculpture. 




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